Re: Week 4 Christmas call is coming!

From: Emma Pierce <emma.pierce@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2018 5:28:52 AM
To: piercetd1@msn.com
Subject: Re: Week 4 Christmas call is coming!

Dear Family!

Can you believe I've been out for 4 weeks going on my 5th! Hope you are are doing well. I hope everyone else has been doing the challenges, I haven't heard any reports. 

As usual, the week was good. The weeks have their ups and downs. I feel like I should catch you up on some things. Like I've told you before, being on a mission is the hardest thing I have ever done up until this point in my life. 

I have only been in the MTC (CTM is Brasil) but what a difference everything has been. 

I am very grateful for the opportunity I have had to travel and experience different cultures. 

With that being said, it amazes me how mature (most of the time) these 18 and 19 years men are. 

But don't let their maturity keep you from thinking they don't so stupid stuff. A few week ago, one of the companionship's a trio, hurt themselves. Elder Webb fell down the stairs, he tried skipping a few steps so he wouldn't be late, he hurt his ankle, the other one Elder Dunn, did a push up, clapped behind his back, and landed wrong on his wrist. So those two Elders just got their temp cast off Friday. 

I have learned some more things about myself while I've been here. I am a lot picker eater than I thought. For breakfast, we have ham and cheese paninis. For lunch and dinner we have RICE, BEANS and CHICKEN. Its good, but I am getting tired of it. 17 months to go. But most of the time I don't know what we are eating. I'm pretty sure they fed us cornbread again and called it pancakes, and if you want you can pour really watery syrup on it. With that being said, when I get home in 17 months, I want grandma Sally to make me a pancake with HER syrup.

On the 8th I got to exercise my talent. President Milder (CTM pres) had a dinner for all the branch presidency, I was asked to play "Were you There" while an Elder and Sister sang, Here is the recording. Click on the link to play:

"Were you There"

This past Sunday for a devotional I played, and will be probably be for the next few weeks. Something I took away from that devotion ( given by a  stake pres and wife near by) is the capability to serve a mission. 

I may not be the most prepared spiritually, physically, emotionally or whatever, but now I am here, In BRASIL, serving the Lord. Learning a new language. I thought someone shared a few weeks ago is The reason we are learning the language is so we can love the people. How true has this been. The Brazilians are some very generous people. 

Learning the language ties in with a Christ-like attribute Patience. Patience not only with others, but patience with myself. It will be a process, but I know that I can over time, learn Portuguese. 

Saturday I had the chance to go proselyting for the first time. It was super awesome, scary, and I was super tired after the 90 min we were out there. But we successfully got 3 contacts.

As part of our classes with our teachers, they act like investigators and we teach them lessons in our companionship's.  All of our lessons, I HAVE to write down, because I can't improvise yet. So this past week during our lesson, we had to change what we were going to talk about. Sister Turpin is able to improvise, so I remained quite for the most part. Towards the end out our lesson, our investigator, Mario, turned to me and asked `Sister Pierce, what do you think I should do?` I thought for a minute, turned to my companion, turned back to Mario, closed my book and bore a very simple, maybe 2 or 3 sentence testimony about Christ. There was not a dry eye in that room, and the gift of tongues is real.

That is what helps me when I wonder why I am here. He will pick up us when we are weak, and will help us bring things to our remembrance. I was reading a card you sent me and it said  "never miss an opportunity to bear your testimony".  Something funny I heard about testimonies is "My Testimony grows every time I bear it, because I water it". LOL 

This past week, I was sick with a terrible cold, something everyone gets while they are here, I didn't have a voice, it was terrible. I need little socks for my shoes, I have blisters, no fun. Next week, if you didn't know, is Christmas. I will be calling home on Christmas Day, I ONLY HAVE 30 MINUTES TO DIAL, TALK AND HANG UP SO BE READY!! 

Oh also whats better than having one new roommate going to the same mission as you?? TWO roommates!! Please share this with Chad and others: "DUI"  Direction under the Influence (of the Spirit) 

With love from Brasil, 

Sister Pierce